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2011 Tour Down Under Adelaide

The Tour Down Under has been run and won, and Alltraders' Sponsored rider Jeremy Rees tells us about his ride.

The tour went pretty smoothly, and there were no problems with my bicycle. The start was really slow. When it was time for riders to start riding (at the end of the countdown), I had to wait about 20 minutes before I could start pedalling normally as there were lots (maybe thousands) of cyclists in front of me. I noticed some traffic that had to wait a while (perhaps a long while) to let the cyclists pass.

I felt a bit lonely the entire time as I rode by myself. I could have rode with some people that I knew, but regretfully, it did not happen. It was very windy, which made the ride a bit harder. I enjoyed the climbs; none of them were very difficult. I think my top speed was 59km/h on the final descent to Strathalbyn.

It was a challenging ride, but I felt strong the whole way. I finished in just under 6.5 hours (arrived in Strathalbyn at 12:50pm). The pros finished in just under 3 hours. Had I treated this event as a race (rather than a recreational ride), I could have completed it in under 2 hours ;)